DPR assesses possible Donbass reintegration law consequences

If Kiev adopts the bill on the reintegration of Donbass, it can harm the peaceful settlement of the conflict, the Foreign Ministry of the Donetsk People's Republic stated.

According to the Acting Head of the department Natalia Nikonorova, the document has not been coordinated with the DPR and LPR.

She added that the Ukrainian authorities thus violated the Minsk agreements and were trying "to sabotage the fulfillment of their obligations."

"Of course, the adoption of this bill will have no actual influence on the republics, but will seriously damage the settlement process," said Nikonorova.

She stressed that the document contradicted the Minsk agreements. It contains "rather provisions on intentions to initiate full-fledged military actions," stated the acting foreign minister.

"Even in its name, it is not the 'reintegration' of Donbass, as it was in the original version of the bill, but the phrase 'the renewal of sovereignty' that does not indicate either the desire of the Ukrainian authorities to peacefully settle the situation," concluded Nikonorova.

Consideration of the document

The Ukrainian parliament approved the document in its first reading in October 2017. In the second one it is planned to consider on Tuesday, January 16. The representative of President Pyotr Poroshenko to the Verkhovna Rada, Irina Lutsenko, said that the bill should be adopted in the near future, while the text would be as close to that proposed by the head of state as possible.

It gives the president the right to use armed forces in the region in peacetime to protect the sovereignty of the country. This will legitimize the use of the army in Donbass without declaring war.

The document, in which Russia was called the aggressor, was adopted with amendments that excluded the paragraph on the priority significance of the Minsk agreements for the settlement of the conflict. Instead, it is proposed to rely on the UN Security Council resolution on Donbass.

Actual martial law introduction

Representative of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Mikhail Chaplyga believes that, in fact, this bill introduces martial law without the necessary procedure provisioned by the constitution.

"Therefore, the property of firms, entrepreneurs and individuals can be used to protect the interests of the state," he said.

According to the co-chairman of the Opposition bloc faction Yury Boyko, the adoption of the law will significantly complicate the work of the mediation mission to resolve the conflict with the participation of the United States and Russia.

"And, most importantly: this law does not give an answer how to resume the territorial integrity of the state, return the territory and people through diplomatic means," said the deputy.